The present invention relates to a locking device that locks a power feeding plug to an inlet of a power feeding connector.
People have become environmentally conscious in recent years. As a result, vehicles with reduced carbon dioxide emissions, such as hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, have become popular. Such a vehicle uses a battery to power a motor, which produces rotation, and runs mainly using the drive force of the motor. Thus, when the vehicle travels over a long distance, the battery's state of charge becomes low. Whenever the state of charge becomes low, the battery must be charged.
The battery may be charged, for example, at a local charging station. The battery may also be charged using a household charging cable connected to a household outlet. In any case, a power feeding plug, which is connected to a distal end of a charging cable, is used for charging. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-161898 describes the structure of such a power feeding plug. When the power feeding plug is connected to an inlet of a vehicle, power flows through a cable to the vehicle and charges the battery. The power feeding plug, which also serves as the part of the cable that is grasped, is inserted into the inlet like when refueling a gasoline engine vehicle.
An electrolytic reaction of compounds and ions in battery cells, which form the battery, charges the battery. Thus, the charging time is relatively long. Although fast charging technology is being developed, the time required to charge the battery of an electric vehicle is still long. As a result, until charging is completed, the vehicle may be left unattended over a long period of time with the power feeding plug connected to the inlet of the vehicle. In such a case, someone may wrongfully remove the power feeding plug and connect it another vehicle to steal electricity.
To solve this problem, a locking device is used to lock the power feeding plug to the inlet of the vehicle. This prevents unauthorized removal of the power feeding plug from the power receiving connector. When the locking device is employed, the user's authorization is required to remove the power feeding plug from the inlet. This prevents the power feeding plug from being used to steal electricity.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2009-81917 and 2010-4731 each describe a prior art example of a power feeding plug locking device that cooperates with a vehicle door lock. In these devices, when the vehicle door is locked in a state in which a power feeding plug is connected to the inlet, the locking device switches to a lock state in cooperation with the locking of the door. When the vehicle door is unlocked, the locking device switches to an unlock state in cooperation with the unlocking of the door.
When a battery is charged in a household garage or the like, the charging is performed on private property. In such a case, it would be difficult to steal electricity. Thus, there is no need to lock the power feeding plug when the vehicle doors are locked. However, in a structure in which the power feeding plug locking device cooperates with the door lock, when the doors are locked during charging, the locking device also locks the power feeding plug. Thus, when removing the power feeding plug after charging is completed, the user must operate the unlocking device to unlock the power feeding plug. As a result, the user must be in possession of the vehicle key to unlock the doors. Accordingly, the possession of the vehicle key is necessary and thus burdensome.